ELLENVILLE, N.Y. >> Some friends and acquaintances of Efrain “Ping” Lopez wonder whether they missed signs over the past few months as he became increasingly despondent, ultimately turning to homicide and suicide, after the end of a long-term relationship, village Police Chief Philip Mattracion said Friday.

“People are saying if they had said something, would there have been a different outcome?” the chief said.

Mattracion, who also is president of the Ellenville Board of Education, said the 14 grief counselors provided by the school district for students and staff were being kept busy by people who were distraught about the killings.

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About 9:55 a.m. Thursday, Lopez, 55, a member of the Ellenville Village Board and a longtime janitor in Ellenville schools, fatally shot his estranged domestic partner, Margarita Soto, and the man she was seeing, Jose Cruz, both 55, before turning the 30-30 lever-action rifle on himself in the parking lot outside the Canal Lock apartments at 110 Center St. in the village.

Mattracion said Lopez got out of the black sedan he was driving and Cruz got out of the red car he was driving, and Lopez shot Cruz twice in the chest. He then shot Soto once in the torso through the passenger-side window of the red car before shooting himself under the chin.

All three were pronounced dead at the scene.

Lopez, Soto and Cruz all lived in Ellenville. Mattracion gave Lopez’s address as 174 Center St. Prior to their breakup a few months ago, Lopez and Soto were “longtime domestic partners,” Mattracion said.

On Friday, after meeting with “all three grieving families” — including Lopez’s son and daughter, Soto’s sons and daughter and a relative of Cruz — Mattracion said they discussed “events and a time line” leading up to the double homicide and suicide.

“We’re still investigating and trying to piece together why this occurred,” the chief said, noting that the violent events Thursday morning were “out of character” for Lopez, a man Mattracion considered a friend and had known for about 30 years.

The chief confirmed a published report that Soto and Cruz had posted about their love for one another on Facebook a couple of hours before the killings.

“Yesterday was one of the hardest in my career. He was a personal friend,” Mattracion said of Lopez. He said Lopez never hesitated to offer assistance to neighbors and never expected anything in return.

The chief said he was up all night trying to understand what led Lopez to commit “one of the most violent acts one could commit. That takes a deep-seated psychological undoing.”

Mattracion said he knew Soto casually and that she was “always cordial and always seemed happy. ... You just never know what’s beyond the smile.”

He said he did not know Cruz but had seen him at Ellenville Regional Hospital, where Cruz worked as a security guard.

“This is a sad day for the community,” Mattracion said. “A horrific day for all of the community. Our hearts and thoughts and prayers go out to all the families affected by this.”

An autopsy completed Friday determined Cruz died of hemorrhaging and internal trauma, that Soto died of internal bleeding and trauma, and that Lopez died of massive head trauma, Mattricion said, noting that all three were shot at close range.

About the Author

Diane Pineiro-Zucker has been a reporter at the Daily Freeman since April 2013.
Pineiro-Zucker worked as a reporter in the Freeman’s Rhinebeck bureau in the early 1980s, left to become executive editor at Taconic Newspapers in Dutchess County, and returned to the Freeman in 2010 as a copy editor. Reach the author at dpzucker@freemanonline.com
or follow Diane on Twitter: @DianeAtFreeman.